The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-08-20
WEAVING Pigs.

WEAVING pigs is a subject Of discussion
among professional pork growers. The
farmer who has litters to wean must re-
member that his high profit lies in his
| ability to so run these little pork making
| machines as to keep their digestion in per
feet order, and to daily increase the
| capacity of the stomach for digestion and
assimilatng the largest possible amount
of food
The stomach will keep in better condition
If the times of feeding be not too far apart
and the quantity given only sufficient to
satisfy hunger, yet not to surfeit. Here is
fine point in getting best growth and
keeping the pigs in highest condition of
health They should be fed at least three
times day until five or six months old,
and if from two TO four months the same
amount of feed for the day be divided into
five meals there will be less danger of over
feeding or deranging the digestion.
The pig is omnvorous, and its highest
and most rapid development says Ameri.
can Cultivator, from which the above is
quoted, calls for u generous variety of
feed. During the period of growth there
should be smaller per cent. of carbonate
or fat formers supplied, while the per
cent Of phosphates and heterogeneous com
pounds should be increased. Corn con-
tains six of the carbonates to one of the
phosphates Since the object of feed
ing pigs between the ages of two and
seven months is to develop growth Of
frame and powers of assimilation, it is
evident that bone and tissue cannot be
made out of fattening food. Something
cannot be made out of nothing, but good
pig can come us near to making it as any
animal created.
Then if our object Is not to make fat,
but bone and muscle, we must feed for
these. Where pigs have access to grass
and artichOkes or potatoes, or acorns and
beech huts, and the endless variety they
find under and above ground, they may
do well where they have, in addition to
these, enough corn to keep them in medium
flesh, and to save them from overwork in
hunting Il living.
Indian corn is especially rich in fat
formers. Oats, on the other hand, are
especially rich in phosphates or bone and
muscle formers. Clover and grass so
happily combine the two that when stock
and hogs have run to clover and grass
they make "A good growth Of bone and
muscle, and development Of stomach
which enables them TO assiniilate a greater
amount Of corn when the time comes TO
fatten them.
If by the starving process only enough
corn is given to keep the pig alive and
squealing vigorously, he may have lung
development, but how about the stomach,
which is the seat Of honor and profit in the
pig? The powers of the stomach are not
developed by feeding concentrated food in
small quantities. If there is but little
corn to be fed, ii will pay to have it ground
and fed even on clover hay, enough to
secure the bulk needed to enlarge the
stomach. When the starved pig arrives
at the time he is to be fed all he will eat,
he will not have the capacity and power
Of stomach TO eat and digest his bushel of
corn in five days, and convert the same
into fifteen pounds Of pork. Good pigs
have done this and go per cent more dur
ing the fattening season.